Director of Communications/ Community Engagement
Portland Public Schools - Oregon ​

• Reorganized a department bereft of leadership for more than two years, resulting in bringing budgetary outlays into line, assessment-based personnel re-assignments, codifying day-to-day procedures, and maximizing existing media opportunities such as the district-run television station and web site.

• Advised and coached senior leadership across the district on media matters and interviews.

• Crafted, and directed crisis communications, including strategies to diffuse hostile press relations for more equitable and favorable coverage.

• Instituted staff training measures and cultivated relationships with neglected communities to create new stakeholders and forge stronger partnerships.
   

English Instructor
Norfolk (Va.) Academy

• Helped develop mastery of writing, reading comprehension, research, and analytical thinking for ninth-graders through classic texts, artistic exploration, and experiential learning.

• Collaborated with library, computer, and arts instructors to craft rich, relevant assignments for contemporary times -- from assessing the validity of internet content during research to creating video presentations to interpreting a novel through mural or comic book creation. 

• Sample approach to conventional study: using J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye as the basis for a First Amendment research and presentation project, requiring students to establish community standards for obscenity, debate them and the merits of book banning in a mock appellate court. .

• Advised the middle school multicultural affairs club and advised administration on communications matters.